diseased date. The head gardener, had
brought it to her, for he had that afternoon, discovered that his palms,
too, had been attacked. But the woman soon regretted her loquacity, for
when she went on to say that Anchhor, the worthy shoemaker who, only the
day before yesterday, had brought home her pretty new sandals, had died
of the plague, Katharina scolded her sharply and bid her be silent. But
as the maid knelt before her to unfasten her sandals, Katharina herself
took up the story again, asking her whether the shoemaker's pretty young
wife had also been attacked. The girl said that she was still alive, but
that the old mother-in-law and all the children had been shut into
the house, and even the shutters barred as soon as the corpse had been
brought out. The authorities had ordered that this should be done in
every case, so that the pestilence might not pervade the streets or
be disseminated among the healthy. Food and drink were handed to the
captives through a wicket in the door. Such regulations, she added,
seemed particularly well-considered and wise. But she would have done
better to keep her opinions to herself, for before she had done speaking
Katharina gave her an angry push with her foot. Then she desired her not
to be sparing with the 'smegma',--[A material like soap, but used in a
soft state.]--and to wash her hair as thoroughly as possible.

This was done; and Katharina herself rubbed her hands and arms with
passionate diligence. Then she had water poured over her head again
and again, till, when she desired the maid to desist, she had to lean
breathless and almost exhausted against the marble.

But in spite of smegma and water she still felt the pressure of the
burning hand on top of her head, and her heart seemed oppressed by some
invisible load of lead.

Her mother! oh, her mother! She had kissed her there, where the plague
had actually touched her, and in fancy she could hear her gasping and
begging for a drink of water like the dying wretches to whom her fate
had led her. And then--then came the servants of the senate and shut her
into the pestilential house with the sick; she saw the pest in mortal
form, a cruel and malignant witch; behind her, tall and threatening,
stood her inexorable companion Death, reaching out a bony hand and
clutching her mother, and then all who were in the house with her, and
last of all, herself.

Her arms dropped by her side: powerful and terrible as she had felt
her